By United Nations Climate Change Conference COP26
MSFT case study SSE
SSE Renewables is a leading developer and operator of renewable energy across the UK and Ireland. With a portfolio of around 4GW of onshore wind, offshore wind and hydro, the company has a key role in helping the UK reach its sustainability and net zero carbon goals.
State-of-the-art environmental monitoring
SSE Renewables is currently building more offshore wind capacity than any other company in the world. For SSE, however, sustainability isn’t only about renewable energy and carbon reduction. It is also committed to ensuring its offshore wind assets do not impact negatively on the surrounding ecosystem.
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The challenge of managing renewable energy's impact
“We have an obligation to ensure that the wind farm isn’t having any adverse effect,” John Dowes, Director of Engineering and Innovation, SSE Renewables
This means monitoring the wildlife close to offshore assets to ensure continued ecosystem health health – something the company has chosen to do using Microsoft Azure tools.
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The initiative uses footage from remote sites around offshore wind farm assets to monitor local wildlife.
“The species recognition project started around 18 months ago as part of ideation sessions that were held with Microsoft and SSE Renewables,” explains James Scobie, Digital Improvement Lead at SSE Renewables.
“Once we’d validated that the tool could be used against this imagery and video, we then decided to run a live trial which we’re conducting now on the Isle of May.”
AI drives sustainability
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The Isle of May is located in the north of the outer Firth of Forth, approximately 8 km off the coast of mainland Scotland. Approximately 1.5 kilometres long by 0.5 kilometres wide, the island is owned and managed by NatureScot as a national nature reserve. It is home to a significant colony of puffins.
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On the Isle of May, footage from digital video cameras is uploaded remotely to Microsoft Azure, where SSE Renewables uses AI tools to recognise each sea bird individually and monitor their movements and activity. This data helps SSE to understand the overall health of the puffin colony and the impact of its local assets.
A very successful programme
James Scobie reports that the trial project has been very successful and has, so far, achieved all its key milestones. The team is excited about the new possibilities.
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Rachel McEwen, Chief Sustainability Officer at SSE, confirms, “Puffins are wonderful and they are a great start, but actually it’s endless… dolphins to porpoises and the birdlife…
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in order to really monitor the impact that you’re having and then, of course, that allows you to adapt what you’re doing in order to reduce the impact.”
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This new ability to monitor and protect local ecosystems will be increasingly important moving forwards. SSE Renewables is aiming to treble its renewable energy output from 2019 levels to 30TWh by 2030, making a significant contribution to decarbonising the power sector and achieving net zero emissions by 2050.
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“We’re delighted to be collaborating with Microsoft on our digital journey,” says Alistair Phillips-Davies, CEO at SSE
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